The new place continues to be mediocre at best.
While I don't miss Palo Alto, I miss the place I had. It was nice, exactly the size I needed and had all the little things that made it living there easy. I've come to realize that I had over-romanticised the idea of living with other people to myself somewhere along the line and it's really quite clear to me now. I don't know how I convinced myself that I'd enjoy living with people that I didn't already know - I'm terrible with new people when I'm *not* living with them. The socialization that I'm looking for when I'm at home is really more of a companionship need than anything else and that's nothing new.

Ah, the companionship thing. My situation has me thinking about it more than I should but it's difficult to not think about an ideal situation (living with someone that I love) when I'm unhappy in my current situation. I've been trying to figure out if it's possible to devote yourself to someone else as well as your work (to the point that you're creating or maintaining a name for yourself in your work space) at the same time and I'm still incredibly conflicted over it. I know I wouldn't be able to say no to a real relationship if I found one so I don't know why I even bother thinking about making a "decision" between that and devoting myself to work and hobbies. I would definitely learn a thing or two about managing my time, that's for sure.

Danger. Large *sigh* ahead.